


Secret Santa

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8985415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: “How did you manage to do it without any of us figuring it out?  Some of us were physically with you when gifts got left.”He smirked, “Elves.”





	

_ Dec 19 _

JJ glanced at her watch, “I’m going to head back to the hotel.”  Her last words spoken over a yawn she was trying to hold back.

“Do you need a lift?”  Hotch’s face was full of concern as he looked over the new mother.

She patted his arm, “No, I’m fine.  This newborn thing is still getting to me.”

Nodding, “Okay.  Seven A.M. then.”

“Got it!”  JJ dug keys out of her pocket and headed back to their hotel.  The team was just outside of Seattle a week before Christmas.  She was hoping she wouldn’t be missing Henry’s first ever Christmas, but it was hard to tell if their case would be wrapped up in time. 

JJ made it to her room and pushed the door open.  Flipping on the lights, her eyes landed on something sitting in the middle of the bed.  She backed out into the hall a minute and glanced around before checking inside the room.  Years of working for the BAU had taught her never to trust a mysterious package.  She studied the box.  It was wrapped in cheerful Christmas paper covered in cartoon Santas.  The fabric ribbon came up all four sides and met in an elaborate bow.  Circling the bed slowly, JJ spotted a tag.  Leaning in, it was a printed label that simply said ‘To: JJ From: ?’ 

It wasn’t in Will’s nature to send something to her on a case or to be cryptic about it.  After several minutes of deliberation JJ carefully tugged at the ribbon, watching it unravel easily and slip to the bed.  She popped the tape loose and unwrapped the box, so far there was nothing suspicious. Finally, JJ pulled the lid off and stared inside.  She pulled out the envelope on top and opened it.  Inside was a memory card for her phone and a typed note.

_‘I figured you could use an upgrade to hold more pictures and video.  I can see being separated from Henry is hard for you.  I hope this helps him feel closer.’_

JJ felt tears spring to her eyes, she had been missing her son terribly.  She just didn’t realize anyone else had noticed.  She looked in the box again and pulled out a book she’d been wanting to get her hands on.  It had been a limited release and so far she’d been out of luck.  The paper Santa bookmark tucked inside the cover drew her attention, when she opened the cover she saw it was also signed by the author.

She sat the book aside and pulled out her phone, deciding to call Garcia.

“Hello Chicca!”

“Hey Pen, did you send the gift?”

“What gift?”  Garcia sounded convincingly confused.

“I got back to my room and there was a present all wrapped up.”

“And you opened it?”  She sounded slightly concerned.

“Yeah, it’s a memory card for my phone and that book.”

“Huh.”

“You really don’t know?”

“No sweetie, I don’t.  I’m sorry.  But I can nose around and see what I can find out if you want?”

“I don’t know.  I’ll get back to you on that.”

==

==

_ Dec 20 _

It had been a long night.  No sooner had they had all made it back to the hotel then they received a call saying a major break had happened in the case.  The team had driven out to the address provided and managed to find their victims, confirming the suspicion that this was their guy, but they had failed to actually FIND their guy.  Morgan was pretty sure the dude was now in the wind, no way would he stick around knowing the cops had him figured out, but then, he knew most of their UNSUBs weren’t as bright as they thought they were in their own minds. 

He offered to stop for coffee and donuts before meeting the others back at the station.

The line in the coffee shop had been long, Derek Morgan eventually popped the lock on the SUV and opened the passenger door to set the trays on the seat.  Already on the seat, however, was a Christmas present wrapped in the same paper JJ had showed him and some of the others last night.  Morgan placed the food on the floorboards and glanced around, seeing a young couple leaning against the wall he asked, “Did you see anyone over here?”

Both shook their heads.

Morgan handled the package like he would a bomb.  JJ’s gift had been just a gift, could it have been a decoy to throw him off?  But her gift was something she actually wanted and needed.  Eventually he opened it and had a look.  Inside the box was a new holster for his side arm and a tactical light.  His own light had met its end recently when he dropped it in a creek.  He searched the box and found a tag almost identical to the one JJ had.

Someone clearly was playing secret Santa, he swore he would figure out who.

==

==

_ Dec 21 _

Morgan had been right about their UNSUB, he’d thought he was clever enough to avoid the cops and FBI.  He’d thought wrong.

The team had spent most of the day rotating trying to break the snotty little man.  Finally Hotch had sent Reid in alone to work him over and show him just how clever he really wasn’t.  Breaking for lunch, the six of them returned to the conference room where JJ and Emily’s squeals and laughter had Reid peering over Morgan to see what was going on.  In the middle of the table was a wrapped present.

Emily turned it, searching for a tag, “It’s for Reid!”  She waved him over, “What’d’ya get?”

Reid glanced around at the others, everyone looked eager to see what he got.  “Let’s find out.”  He carefully opened the present, wrapped in the same paper as JJ and Morgan’s gifts had been.  “A new messenger bag and…”  He felt something inside the bag and pulled it out, “Coffee!”  Reid tossed his head back and laughed.  “This is the good stuff too!”  He glanced around and tried to figure out who might be behind the gifts, but no one seemed to be hiding anything.

Lunch was filled with chatter and speculation and a couple accusations about who the secret Santa could be. 

==

==

_ Dec 22 _

Rossi had met Emily as she got on the elevator.  The team had returned home late the evening before.  “So, do you think there will be more gifts?”

She broke out in a grin, “Do you know if there will be more gifts?”

Rossi shook his head, “I honestly have no idea.  If we’d have been here the whole time I would have said Garcia.”

Chuckling, she agreed, “Me too.  I thought Spencer until he got a gift.”

“He could have done that to throw us off.”  Dave suggested.

“Maybe.”  The doors opened and the pair stepped out to a flurry of excited Garcia.

“Emily, you’re here!  There’s a big present on your desk and it’s been there and you haven’t so come open it.  Now!”  She dragged her friend to the desk.

Laughing at her friend, Emily followed her to her desk.  Scanning the room she said, “Maybe I should wait until everyone else gets here.”

“Oh, no no no, don’t make me wait!”

Rossi sauntered up, “Hotch’s upstairs in meetings all day.  Show us what you got.”

Garcia was making like she was going to unwrap it for her friend when Emily swatted her hands away and tugged at the bow.  Everyone leaned in as she pulled off the lid.  Her jaw dropped at the black fabric inside, “No way!” 

JJ was just as surprised, “Is that the one from…?”

Emily pulled the item out. It was a black fitted coat.  She and JJ had been dreaming over a catalog weeks earlier and Emily had mentioned she wanted the coat, but it was a bit expensive and she had a perfectly good coat.

“Try it on!”  Garcia clapped excitedly.

Emily pulled the coat on, it was a perfect fit.  “I don’t know who’s doing this, but they shouldn’t have!  This is… I’m speechless.”  She ran he hands gently down the soft fabric. 

==

==

_ Dec 23 _

He was head down, writing frantically in one of the mountain of files collected on his desk when someone knocked on his door.  “Come in.”

Garcia stepped in and shut the door behind her before sitting in one of the chairs, “Any present sightings today?”

Rossi chuckled, he’d heard rumors she’d not been able to focus on anything but the mystery gifts.  “Not that I know of.”

“We only have today and tomorrow morning of work before we all have five days off.”

He gave her a smile, “Be patient.  Whoever is doing this surely knows what the date is.” A commotion moving along the catwalk between his office and the conference room had both of them looking out the window.

Reid opened the door, “Rossi!  There’s something with your name on it in the conference room!”

Rossi glanced at Garcia, “See, be patient.”  He stood and followed the others out of his office and to the conference room.  The way the gift was wrapped, it was fairly obvious is was a bottle of liquor.  A big bottle of liquor.  He searched for the tag, but this time it was blank.  The only assurance it was from the same sender as the other gifts was that it was the same wrapping paper and ribbon.  Unwrapping his gift, Rossi couldn’t help but be impressed.  It was a very expensive bottle of scotch, not something even he indulged in very often. 

“Plans to share?”  Emily joked.

“Yeah man, you should share that with the class!”  Morgan added, laughing.

“Not a chance.”  Dave held the bottle out in front of himself to admire, like he was holding a newborn baby.  “Not a chance in the world.”

==

==

_ Dec 24 _

Christmas Eve meant a half day of work for the BAU teams.  A good portion of the agents didn’t even bother showing up, either working from home or simply not working as all.  Garcia was one of the unfortunate few that had to show up and work on her systems.  The office was practically empty and very lonely.  She wished she could have just stayed home too.

All of her friends we with their own families over the next couple days.  Morgan and Reid were both flying to their families later in the day and JJ along with Will was already headed south.  Garcia really hated that Christmas reminded her she was all alone. 

Finally deciding she’s done enough, Garcia collected the paperwork she’d completed and headed up to leave it on Hotch’s desk.  Halfway through the bullpen, she stopped.  Through the window she could see her boss hunched over his desk, working away.  Finishing her trip to his door, she tapped on the frame.

“Headed out?”  He didn’t even glance up.

“Yeah.”  She didn’t mean for the slight sigh to slip out.

Her tone made Hotch look up at her, he took her in from head to toe.  Her outfit was cheerful enough, but her face didn’t show the same light, “Do you have plans?”

Shrugging she fidgeted with the paperwork in her hands before laying it on the coffee table, “Not really.”

He waited, she looked like she wanted to say something more.

“Everyone else has family obligations, but I… don’t.”  Backing to the door, “I’ll let you finish.  Merry Christmas Aaron, tell Jack I said so too.”  Before he could reply, she was gone.

Garcia returned to her office quickly to grab her purse and was surprised to find a neatly wrapped gift sitting in her chair.  As far as she knew, only she and Hotch were left in the building from their team, and she’d just left his office.  The box wasn’t particularly large, but the bow and paper were assembled perfectly.  She unwrapped the gift and tears sprang to her eyes.  She hadn’t realized anyone had been aware how badly she wished to take a trip out to the west coast again.  She never had time or enough money to simply vacation out there, get back in touch with herself, but here were open tickets to fly out along with a hotel near the beach. 

“Jack left a week ago to spend winter break with Jessica and her family in Maine.  I haven’t seen him since before we left on our case.”  A soft voice spoke from her open doorway.

Garcia gasped slightly and whirled around, taking in her boss standing there staring down at the floor, looking a little lost.  She thought back to all of the conversations over the past month about everyone’s plans for the holidays.  She couldn’t remember one time someone asked him what his plans were, everyone just assumed he would be with Jack. 

When the silence lingered a little too long, Hotch felt a blush creep up his next, “I’m sorry, you’re on your way out.  Have a good holiday off.”  He glanced up just long enough to make a split second of eye contact and then vanished out of the doorway.

It took a minute for Garcia’s mind to catch up with the facts, but as soon as it did she rushed out of her office in search of her boss.  At the elevators, he was just about to step on, “Wait!”

Hotch stopped and looked up at her, “Yes Penelope?”

“There’s no reason for us to both sit home alone.  Or for me to sit home alone and you to spend the next five days here all alone.”  Which, to be honest, was what she figured would really happen.  “Come over.  I have food and treats and a tree and all of the classic Christmas movies.”  When it looked like he might say no, she tacked on, “Please?” and gave him her best begging look.

He saw the sincerity and after a moment nodded. “Okay.”

Giving him a blinding smile, she told him to stop by her place in time for dinner that night.

==

Dinner had been a festive affair.  Everything Garcia had prepared had either been red and green or in some way made Christmas-y.  The pair had fallen asleep on the couch to a movie, in their sleep Garcia had cuddled against him.

Hotch woke up with a stiff neck and slightly confused about his surroundings.  It took a minute to get his bearings, but when the weight at his side shifted, he remembered the evening before.  “Merry Christmas.”  He said to the blonde tucked beside him, voice still think and gravelly from sleep.

The warm breath against his shirt when the younger woman attempted a reply let him know she was tucked pretty securely against his ribs.  Some shifting around and she tried again, “Merry Christmas.”  Getting her own bearings, she sat up, “Sorry, we fell asleep during the movie.”

“It’s okay.”

Rubbing her face, she studied him, still reclined on his back on the couch, his knees behind her.  “The secret Santa this week.  Was that you?”

He didn’t really see the point in lying now, so he nodded.

“How?”

He cocked one eyebrow.

“How did you manage to do it without any of us figuring it out?  Some of us were physically with you when gifts got left.”

He smirked, “Elves.”


End file.
